Change in America? "Come Walk in My Shoes"

By NEH Staff

"Freedom, true freedom, will never be free," said Rep. John Lewis yesterday as he joined the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Howard University at the 150th anniversary of the issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

"It will always be a constant struggle" but never say that change can't occur, he said. For proof, "come walk in my shoes."

Rep. Lewis, one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, architect of the 1963 March on Washington, leader of the first 1965 Selma March, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, said that the hateful signs he saw growing up as a child in Georgia are gone. The only place they are visible is in books, museums and on video. "We are one," he said. Americans are "inextricably tied to one another."

The event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial marked the week when President Abraham Lincoln announced his intention to free the slaves in the Confederacy on January 1, 1863.

The Lincoln Memorial performance was the culmination of NEH’sEmancipation Nation commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Watch Howard University students, faculty, administrators and friends performing and speaking in the video below.

The Emancipation Nation program coincided with Constitution Day. In 2004, Congress declared September 17 as Constitution Day, mandating that all federally funded educational institutions study the U.S. Constitution. The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is a key moment in the process that led to the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery.

The event was planned and organized by Courtney Chapin, the NEH White House Liaison and Director of Congressional Affairs and her staff, Claire Noble, Caitlin Green, Jose Centeno-Melendez, Emma Jekowsky, Michael MacKay, and Helen Yoshida.